One of our old favourites; another way of describing this Seared Beef Fillet, Capers & Red Pepper Tian is a ‘thinking person’s steak tartare’.  If you’ve ever thought that you’d like to try a steak tartare but can’t get past the idea of putting raw meat in your mouth, then this could be just what you’ve been waiting for.

It’s a beautifully light salad made from medium cooked and diced fillet steak. It’s very easy to produce and can be made well in advance if you’re throwing a dinner party.

The dish takes very little time to prepare and the most taxing part of making it is a little bit of chopping practice and a small amount of `tasting for seasoning` at various stages in the preparation.

Ingredients

• 1 Fillet steak
• 2 tablespoons of small capers
• 1 red pepper that has been roasted at a high temperature, with the charred skin and seeds removed and finely diced
• 1 small shallot, finely diced
• 1 teaspoon of creamed horseradish
• 1 tomato, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 gherkin, finely chopped
• Salt and coarse ground black pepper to season
• Small amount of chives, finely chopped
• A drizzle or glug of extra virgin olive oil, as much or little as you like.

Method

• Heat a pan.
• Season the meat by brushing with a small amount of cooking oil and seasoning with salt and coarsely ground black pepper.
• Seal the fillet steak in a hot pan getting a good brown colour on all sides of the meat.  Cook the meat to your personal taste, anywhere between mooing and cremated.
• Set the meat aside to cool.
•  In a bowl, mix together the capers, diced red peppers, diced shallot, tomato and gherkins.
• Chop the steak into the same size dice as all the salad ingredients, mix together and dress with olive oil and creamed horseradish.
• Taste to check the seasoning.
• At the moment we are serving it with a drizzle of Dijon mustard, honey and cider vinegar dressing and some rocket leaves.

Enjoy the salad and enjoy the summer!